May 28, 2009

Time for this week's movie reviews. (I reviewed the French romantic comedy Shall We Kiss?, but since it has vanished from theaters after only one week, I will not excerpt my scribblings here.)

Ann Morrow on Terminator Salvation:

"To add atmosphere to all the heavy-metal carnage, McG brushstrokes
the dreary landscape with evocative visuals such as nighttime
flare rockets reminiscent of Vietnam, oil-drum fires that
could’ve come from Kuwait, and incongruously enough, Nazi-like
cattle-car roundups. It’s more than distracting, as part of
the film’s appeal should’ve been a feature-length travelogue
to the dehumanized, machine-made apocalypse of Earth in the
year 2029. Problem is, Terminator Salvation is so lacking
in human interest that the machines have already won."

Laura Leon on Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian:

"For the most part,
the writing is a mess, with gaping, unexplained plot holes
and a completely uninspired challenge to the protagonist.
In fact, in almost all ways, Night at the Museum is
a mess, and yet, its individual gifts give audiences something
to really enjoy."

May 25, 2009

Albany's own Terence Kindlon is interviewed by TPM Muckraker on the Newburgh 4 and the FBI's tactics:

" 'It could have been any kind of conspiracy you wanted,' said
Kindlon. 'I think what happened is that the FBI--during the Bush
administration--basically designed a conspiracy, dreamed up a scary
story, shooting down airplanes... and they found four idiots to become
the defendants. It was like they dressed them up in halloween
costumes.'

He called the Newburgh case 'an idiotic charade,' adding 'it's like
professional wrestling: everyone knows its fake, but it's fun to watch.' "

May 21, 2009

The nerve. The arrogance. Where do music critics get off throwing their opinions around all willy-nilly? Why should we care what some shlub at some kitty-litter rag thinks about some disc we've never heard of anyway? God--it's like they've got retired city workers from Philadelphia doing this work over styrofoam cups of coffee . . .

Cecelia Martinez writes about the CDTA's attempts to cut back on service hours in today's issue.

Blue bags have been placed on 250
bus-stop signs throughout the Capital Region, notifying riders of
route consolidations by the Capital District Transportation
Authority. As part of that consolidation, CDTA will eliminate some
bus stops. On routes where buses once stopped at every block, for
example, some routes will now have bus stops only every two or three
blocks.

This has transportation advocates
concerned with how the changes will affect riders, and upset over
what they feel has been a lack of public notification and involvement
by CDTA.

Team player, said Bob Jukes, means exactly that: team
player. Cathy Fahey, councilwoman for the 7th Ward, might represent the 7th
well in the Albany Common Council, but when it comes to her responsibilities in
the ward’s Democratic committee, Jukes, the ward leader, said, she hasn’t been
a team player.

Fahey, who is running for a second term in the 7th Ward, has
now twice lost her committee’s endorsement vote. The first time, she lost to
George Lynch, who later withdrew from the race due to a job conflict. The
second time, Fahey lost to political neophyte Susan Tobin. However, Jukes
failed to invite Fahey to this second vote, which he now admits was a mistake,
and Fahey complained to the committee’s chair, Dan McCoy. A third vote has been
scheduled.

May 15, 2009

Anton Konev announced today via e-mail his candidacy for Common Council in the 11th Ward. The 25-year-old Konev, who lost a 2007 campaign for Albany County Legislature, is the executive director of the Coalition for Change PAC and has previously worked with the Albany for Obama campaign and the Coalition to Save Albany.

The 11th is in the heart of Pine Hills. In his e-mail, Konev outlined the priorities of his platform with a primary focus on safety, a hot issue for the Pine Hills neighborhood.

"We need to bring back community policing," Konev wrote, "and ensure that youth and
college-age students have healthy entertainment after school in a way
that does not disturb their neighbors - sports, arts, music, affordable
internet and computer games, not just bars."

May 14, 2009

The Seventh Ward Committee
met without inviting all its members to endorse candidates for ward
and citywide offices. One of the members left off the invitation
list was the Seventh Ward Councilmember Cathy Fahey. The meeting was
organized by ward chair Robert Jukes.

“I heard through the grapevine
that the committee was meeting and showed up anyway,” Fahey stated.
“When I pressed Mr. Jukes for an explanation, he replied that I wasn’t
a team player, that if I ‘acted’ more like a committee member, he
would have invited me.”